That Paper Wall

At our office party in December 2013, we had an idea to create our very own backdrop for photo shoot. I challenged our team to come up with a design that was possible to produce and assemble within a week period. The wall was 8m. long by 2.4m. tall. Material must be found easily within the office and most importantly, it must be cheap.

At last, out selected material was paper. Yes, it was cheap and easily found in the office. Our team came up with a paper module that can be done using A3 size paper and able to connect to other modules from all directions. The process started in 3D modelling software before translating in to 2D print out for production. The module was a simplify version of our house logo interlocking each other in opposite direction.

Once we had the module worked out and ready to be mass produced, I challenged them further to construct the entire wall without using any adhesive substance. They had to come up with another simple structural system that would hold and stiffen the modules together. Of course, this structure was also made of paper. It took about 3 days to produce over thousand of paper module and another 3 days to assemble them together. We figured that with this module the challenge wasn’t the length of the wall but the height. The construction was easy until 1.5 m. tall, after that the lower module seemed to be carrying too much weight at that point we had to increased stiffener.

This project was one of the very first project we have done together as an office that wasn’t architecture and didn’t involve and clients. It was our own and it was something we all really put our heart into to see it accomplished. It was a great bonding experience. Many times I think a good design doesn’t have to be complex and sophisticated, sometime having fun and trying something different is enough to bring a good design to the world as well. I’m looking forward to more projects like this in a very near future.